SINCE THE START OF HER CAREER, CATE BLANCHETT HAS GIVEN ASTONISHING PERFORMANCES. WITH MUSIC DRAMA TÁR , THOUGH, SHE IS BETTER THAN EVER. WE ASK HER HOW SHE DOES IT

WORDS OLLY RICHARDS

PORTRAITS MARY McCARTNEY

TYPE GREG COULTON

Cate Blanchett, photographed exclusively for Empire at Abbey Road Studios, London, on 3 July 2022.

IF YOU’RE EVER HAVING A NICE CHAT WITH CATE BLANCHETT AND WANT TO STOP IT DEAD IN ITS TRACKS, ASK HER ABOUT ACTING.

It’s like throwing a bucket of water over her. “I couldn’t be less interested in talking about it,” she says, slowly folding her arms as if this might deflect the question. She would rather talk about anything else. She’d like to talk about her garden (her onions are doing well). She’d like to talk about how amazing it is that we’re standing about 15 metres from where The Beatles recorded (we’re in Abbey Road Studios, which we’ll explain later). Just please, oh God, not acting. Unfortunately, we’re going to make her talk about it because, you may have noticed, she’s really very good at it. And in her new film she’s about the best at it she’s ever been.

Written and directed by Todd Field, TÁR stars Blanchett as Lydia Tár, a fictional conductor at the peak of her profession. Tar is the first female conductor of an unnamed Berlin orchestra, though hates that it’s the “female” bit that qualifies her achievement. She’s an EGOT (winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony). She’s about to embark on her crowning glory, a live recording of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, a famously complicated work (it says here). She’s almost running out of things to achieve. But the top is a dangerous place. There is gossip about Tár using her position to seduce women who work for her. As her pedestal begins to crumble, Tár finds herself isolated. And something is haunting her. Her mind and life seem to be unravelling in tandem.

The list of great Cate Blanchett performances is not short. It’s pretty much a list of all Cate Blanchett’s performances. After 1997’s Oscar And Lucinda she was talked of as a talent to watch. The next year she played Elizabeth I and showed she was a talent you couldn’t tear your eyes from. So it’s been ever since. The Aviator. Notes On A Scandal. Blue Jasmine. Carol. You might find some duff films on her CV, but you won’t find a duff performance.

TÁR, though, sees Blanchett operating on a different level. She’s ripping through layers of a complicated, troubled woman in a way that leaves you wrung out just spectating. It’s like watching Whitney Houston sing or Gene Kelly dance. You know they’re made of approximately all the same bits as you, but it’s impossible to fathom how they’ve been able to put them to much more remarkable use. At 53, Blanchett is doing the most astonishing work of her career.